SKELLEY, CHELSEA ATKINS, Ph.D. Interfaces and Interfacings: Posthuman Ecologies, Bodies and Identities. (2016) Directed by Dr. Stephen Yarbrough, 241 pp. This dissertation posits a posthuman theory for a technologically-driven ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) world, specifically theorizing cognition, intentionality and interface. The larger aim of this project is to open up discussions about human and technological relations and how these relations shape our understanding of what it means to be human. Situating my argument within posthuman and rhetorical theories, I discuss the metaphorical cyborg as a site of resistance, the everyday cyborg and its relations to technology through technogenesis and technology extension theories, and lastly the posthuman cyborg resulting from advances in biotechnology. I argue that this posthuman cyborg is an enmeshed network of biological and informatic code with neither having primacy. Building upon Anthony Miccoli, I see the interface (the space in between) as a functional myth, as humans are mutually constituted by material, biological, technological and social substrates of a networked ecology. I, then, reconfigure Kenneth Burke’s identification theory for the technological age and argue that the posthuman subject consubstantiates with the substrates, (or substances), to continuously invent a fluid intersubjectivity in a networked ecology. This project, then, explores both metaphorical and technological interfaces to better understand each. I argue that interfacing is a more thorough term to understand how humans, technologies, objects, spaces, language and code interact and thus constitute what we conceptualize as “human” and “reality.” This framework dismantles the interface as a space in between in favor of a networked ecology of dynamic relations. Then, I examine technological interfaces and their development as they have moved from the desktop to touchscreens to spaces wherein the body becomes a literal interface and site of interaction. These developments require rhetoric and composition scholars to interrogate not only the discourse of technologies but the interfaces themselves if we are to fully understand how human users come to identify with technologies that shape not only our communication but also our sense of subjectivity, autonomy, agency and intentionality. To make my claims clearer, I analyze science fiction representations of interfaces to chart more accessible means through which to understand the larger philosophical arcs in posthuman theory, intentionality as well as artificial intelligence. Using the films, then, this work seeks to elucidate the complexities of relations in the networked ecologies that define how we understand ourselves and the world in which we live. INTERFACES AND INTERFACINGS: POSTHUMAN ECOLOGIES, BODIES AND IDENTITIES by Chelsea Atkins Skelley A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2016 Approved by _________________________________ Committee Chair © 2016 Chelsea Atkins Skelley APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation written by Chelsea Atkins Skelley has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair __________________________________________ Committee Members __________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ ____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ v CHAPTER I. THE AGE AND ANXIETIES OF UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING .......................1 Tensions and Anxieties Arise ....................................................................10 Unpacking the Binaries ..............................................................................16 Virtual vs. “Real” ...........................................................................16 The Corporeal Turn: Materiality Matters ......................................19 Moving Forward ........................................................................................23 II. CYBORGS, BODIES AND INTERFACINGS ...................................................28 Why Posthumanism? .................................................................................29 Challenging Cartesian Dualism .................................................................33 Branches of Posthumanism .......................................................................36 The Posthuman Cyborg..............................................................................41 Metaphorical Cyborg as Resistance ...............................................43 “Everyday” Cyborgs ......................................................................44 Technology and Cyborg Relations .................................................46 Technogenesis ....................................................................47 Technology as Extension of the Body and Mind ...............48 Problems with Extension Theories ....................................53 Posthuman Cyborg as Interface .................................................................54 Code as Material ............................................................................55 Material Cyborgs ...........................................................................58 Posthuman Invention: Identification and Consubstantiality ......................64 III. INTERROGATING “INTERFACE” IN A POSTHUMAN WORLD ................67 Interfaces Defined ......................................................................................69 Human-Computer Interaction Design Goals .............................................72 Natural User Interfaces ..............................................................................76 Body Movement and Gesture in Interface Interaction ...............................80 Gestural Interfaces and Research ...............................................................83 The Interface in Rhetoric and Composition ...............................................88 Troubling the Discourse of HCI ................................................................91 iii The Myth of Objectivity and Neutrality ....................................................93 Transparency as Sleepwalking ...................................................................95 Interrogating the “Natural” ........................................................................97 Posthuman Reconsiderations of the Interface and Body .........................102 Redefining “Interface” .............................................................................103 IV. FROM SEPARATION TO AGGREGATION: TRACING THE POSTHUMAN ARC IN SCIENCE FICTION .............................................110 Why Study Science Fiction Interfaces? ...................................................113 Comparing Filmic Interfaces and Implications ........................................122 Minority Report – Dystopian Ubicomp .......................................123 Iron Man – The Beginning of a Cyborg Subjectivity ..................133 Iron Man 2 – Stark’s Extended Cognition ...................................137 Iron Man 3 – Beyond Extension to Aggregated Cognition .........143 Avengers: Age of Ultron – Fully Bodied AI ...............................153 Posthuman Visions...................................................................................162 V. RETHINKING INTENTIONALITY FOR POSTHUMANS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ..................................................................167 Machine Intelligence and Intentionality ..................................................178 Artificial Intelligence and Identification ..................................................183 Spike Jonze’s Her: AI’s Bildungsroman ..................................................188 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................199 NOTES .............................................................................................................................239 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Tweet between Jon Favreau and Elon Musk Shows Sci-fi’s Influence ...........118 Figure 2. The Precogs in the “Temple” with BCIs Linking their Cognition ...................123 Figure 3. The Pre-Crime Scrubber Interface ....................................................................125 Figure 4. Anderton “Corrects” the Interface ....................................................................127 Figure 5. Wearable Brain Interface that Imprisons the Wearer .......................................130 Figure 6. Tony Stark Physically Touches and Tests Designs via Hologram ...................136 Figure 7. Stark Places his Design into a Holographic Chest Cavity ................................138 Figure 8. Stark Grasps the Holographic Nucleus .............................................................140 Figure 9. Stark Expands His Arms and the Hologram Rendering a 360º View ..............141 Figure 10. JARVIS’ Digital Representation of the Crime Scene ....................................144 Figure 11. Stark Pulls out a Digital Cross Section of the Hologram ...............................145